I'm an Asian traveling with a friend in NZ. On 3/19, I scheduled a pick up from Nelson to Greymouth with the Magic Bus. It was somewhat early in the morning around 8 o'clock. When the driver, SOAP, arrived, each of the passengers had to give our names so he could check us in. Me and my friend were the last to do so, therefore I went up to the driver to show him our names. However, he looked at me and said "u r eating, I'm not talking to u" then walked away angrily to get the name from my friend first. After like 10 seconds, he was done with my friend and needed my name; so he came up to me again (while I was still trying to swallow my food). Since he didn't want to talk to me while I was eating, so I just told him I was still chewing. Then he started mumbled, "if u wanna get on the road, better cooperate." Seriously, that was what I tried to do at the first place. I could just pointed out my name like the previous one did without speaking at all.
Then we went on to pick more people so we could headed to our destination. Around one pick up point, he saw his friend walking on the street. So he got off to chat with his friend and had a smoke. We waited 10mins for his cigarette break.
Alone the way, he told us about the activities that we could sign up once we arrive. He even told us the activities owned by his friends (which had nothing to do with Magic) out of courtesy for us to sign up. Since one of my must-do is climbing up the Fox glacier, me and my friend quickly signed up the sheet. At one break stop, he asked people to give out credit card info so he could booked us in. An Asian couple were standing in front of us and they passed their card to him. Mr. Soap wrote down the credit card no. on the sheet then flipped over to write down the security code. When they saw it, they simply asked him to scratch it off and cancel the booking caz they didn't want their credit card info to be passed around on a piece of paper. When the driver heard the request, he just stormed off and told everybody to get on the bus so we could leave. He started driving ruthlessly, sometimes even hands off the wheel to scratch off the info on a seemingly windy road. All of the sudden, he stopped the bus, pulled over and asked a guy for a lighter. He got on the side road and started burning the sheet. We were shocked by his reckless behavior. Then he got on the bus, put the microphone on and started saying "in Mouri, there is a word "mana," if you do not understand, just google it. People with "mana" are the "good men." For some culture, those people have no trust and do not possess the "mana." He went on and on about it and insulted Asians. It seemed pretty suspicious he would react this way over such a small thing. At the next break point, he threatened us if we did not come back on time, he would definitely leave us behind. So we all came back accordingly, but Mr. Soap just sat there, drank his coffee, made the whole bus waited for him for 15 mins.
I do not understand what kind of person he is, but I can certainly tell, he obviously do not understand the English word "manner." He did not respect Asians let alone their cultures or even his job. So think twice if u are going to book a tour from Magic and I surly hope the Magic people can do something about this awful driver, SOAP.
